About

History of the StreetSchool Network™:
It was July 31, 1984 and our 1972 Ford LTD was loaded to capacity and weighed down by a small U-haul trailer. The weather was hot and sticky as my wife, Yvonne, our two young daughters, and I drove across the plains of rural Oklahoma toward Denver. I was leaving my job as a school principal near Tulsa and moving to Denver to answer what I knew was God’s call.

The story actually began five years earlier. I was a public school teacher in Oklahoma and in the summer of 1979, we traveled to Denver to visit my cousin, Andy. He operated Genesis Center, a ministry for the homeless and street people in downtown Denver. Andy would go out onto the streets every day and find the down and out and addicted and offer them food, clothing, a warm place to live, and the love of Christ. I had no idea at that time that God was preparing me to start a ministry to rescue at-risk urban young people and give them hope for the future. Being an educator, it struck me that most of the people I encountered at Genesis Center did not have a high school diploma.

Without the education and training, their chances of achieving self-sufficiency and meaningful lives were minimal. God began to work on my heart to convince me that I could be the person who could add an educational component to the ministry. For five years, God kept the vision of a school for street kids alive in my heart. Finally, in the spring of 1984, the Lord said it was time to move to Denver and follow the vision He had given me. So, we loaded up and moved west. We had little more than an old car and a vision from God. By then, Genesis Center was closed and Andy was running a Christian Coffeehouse called, Jesus on Main Street. After arriving in Denver, it didn’t take long for me to gain an even better grasp on the plight of the homeless as my wife, kids, and I moved into subsidized housing, accessed subsidized medical care to get my wife through the birth of our third child, and signed up for WIC and AFDC. Yvonne and I also became expert dumpster divers! Though it was difficult, our family clung to the belief that God had called us to Denver to educate at-risk young people so they, too, can have hope for the future. In the spring of 1985, a couple offered to rent a house next to the Coffeehouse where we could open a Street School. They were God-sent benefactors as He continued to unfold His plan. On May 13, 1985, the Denver Street School became a reality! That first year was very challenging as I learned to adjust traditional teaching methods and techniques to help my unique group of students. During that first year, I was the only teacher. It would have been easy to quit, but the Lord performed many marvelous and timely provisions of His mercy that showed and convinced me I was on the right track and smack dab in the middle of His Will. The following June, we held our first graduation and awarded three diplomas! One to Lanny, a street person from Andy’s old Genesis Center, one to Margie, a recovering addict, and another to Bob, a struggling Navy veteran. All three had received a Gift of Hope and continued to live meaningful and productive lives. In these three lives, and in the lives of many others destined to follow them, was the confirmation that we were doing what God wanted us to do. The Denver Street School continued to grow. We moved to larger facilities, added teachers, and eventually more campuses. All the time, God faithfully continued to send “Hope Partners” who provided the necessary resources and encouragement to keep us going. As early as 1989, I began to be approached by others around the country, asking me to help them start Street Schools in their own communities. Groups in Seattle, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, and Tampa soon had schools based on the general premise that a quality Christ-based education delivered in a small personal family like environment by loving, caring, and excellent teachers is the key to giving hope for a successful future to troubled, at-risk young people. In 1996, representatives from the initial four schools met in Seattle to form the National Association of Street Schools. We covenanted to help others start and develop Street Schools in their cities and to seek out and equip these Street Schools with the best practices in all areas of program, operations, and development.

In 2003, NASS was selected by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to be a part of the Alternative High School Initiative as one of eight national intermediaries who were working to replicate their successful local alternative model on a national scale and suddenly we were on the national stage. Shortly thereafter, we became a key partner in the Ele:Vate Initiative which provided resources and focus to include economic literacy as a key component in our model.

At the request of member schools, in 2006, we added accreditation to our service offerings to ensure quality and model fidelity. This was accomplished through a partnership with the Commission for International and Transregional Accreditation.

In 2008, I had the great privilege of speaking at the White House on two separate occasions as a key panelist to lend expertise from my experience combating the drop-out crisis. The first was a briefing, "The Dropout Epidemic in the U.S. and Cross-Sector Solutions" and the second The White House Summit on Inner-City Children and Faith-Based Schools.

Today, the National Association of Street Schools and its nearly 50 member schools are known as the StreetSchool Network™. Our work as leaders in drop-out intervention and prevention continues as we seek to reach more students, support teachers in urban schools whether working in public or private education settings and to change the public will about the importance of reaching our kids most at-risk of educational failure and giving them hope.